Many furniture manufacturers use metal drawer guide assemblies having an elongate stationary lower metal drawer guide. Referring now to FIG. 1, and in one conventional example, a metal case runner 12 is secured to an inside structure of a furniture article 14. An elongate upper metal drawer guide 16 is secured to a bottom surface of a drawer 18 at a front end (not shown) and a rear end of the drawer 18, for example. As in many conventional drawer guide assemblies, the lower metal case runner 12 includes a generally U-shaped (or T-shaped) metal rail (in cross-section), having one or more members 13 projecting horizontally outwardly from upper ends of the U-shape, for example. The upper metal drawer guide 16 is generally C-shaped in cross-section and may have an integral, upwardly-extending metal tab member 17 at the rear end that is secured to a rear wall of the drawer 18.
More specifically, to secure the metal drawer guide 16 to the bottom of the drawer 18, a hole 20 is typically first milled in the back or rear end of the drawer 18, as depicted in FIG. 1. The tab member 17 of the drawer guide 16 is received in the hole 20 to help secure the drawer guide 16 to the drawer 18. The outwardly extending member 13 of the case runner 12 is then disposed within a recess 24 of the drawer guide 16 to secure the case runner 12 to the drawer guide 16, for example. In addition, the rear end of the case runner 12 includes an aperture 26 for receiving an attachment mechanism 28, such as a screw, to secure the case runner 12 to the rear portion of furniture 14.
However, having to mill the hole 20 at the rear end of the drawer 18 is typically time consuming and often results in variations in the size and location of the hole 20, making the assembly process less efficient. In addition, because of variations in milling the hole 20, for example, the metal tab member 17 does not always fit into the hole 20, making proper securement of the drawer guide 16 to the drawer 18 difficult. Thus, for at least these reasons, it is desired to provide an improved design for securing a drawer guide to a drawer, for example, and a more efficient process of assembling a drawer guide system to a drawer.